Talk about a superhero: Marvel Entertainment just announced that, thanks to robust Iron Man DVD sales totaling some $136 million, the company’s profits exceeded expectations at the end of 2008. Which is great news, indeed — for Marvel…and me! After all, I still submit that, when it comes to comic-book flicks, Iron Man is far superior to The Dark Knight. (Sorry, uh, rest of the world!) But I digress. The real issue here is: Can Marvel stay strong? Last year marked the organization’s freshman foray into filmmaking as a stand-alone studio, and while Iron Man wound up a huge hit (worldwide gross: $582 mil), sister summer release The Incredible Hulk fared merely well (worldwide gross: $263 mil). Meanwhile, the Punisher franchise seems finished for now, series like Blade, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil/Elektra could use a reboot, and while X-Men Origins: Wolverine is due out this summer, it’ll be a while before we get our next glimpse into the world of Tony Stark, more than a year hence. And who knows what to make of that Spider-Man musical. What do you think? And what Marvel movies/musicals are you looking forward to seeing?
Feb 25
2009
03:52 AM ET
'Iron Man' boosts Marvel's bottom line, but can the company keep it up?
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The franchises that you list (Blade, FF, Punisher, Daredevil) are not part of Marvel’s production plans for the next five years. You have Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, Joe Johnston doing Captain America, Favreau’s Iron Man 2, and an Avengers team movie. All of which have monster potential.
Iron Man is great, but not as good as Dark Knight. Though, the argument can be made (and has by some) that it’s easier to sit down and pop in Iron Man for repeated viewings, with multiple stops/starts tossed into the mix. Iron Man’s the popcorn flick, Dark Knight makes you think.
Joshua Rich: You are a twitching f*king scumbag. I loved Iron Man, but better than Dark Knight??????? No…………..You are so f*cking wrong it’s criminal.
This is an odd article because many of the titles you talk about are not under Marvel’s control at the moment. (at least as far as i know) i believe fox has the right to most of them (FF, the X-Men, Daredevil/Elektra) and it has been shown that fox is less concerned with putting out quality comic book movies. While Marvel is obviously involved, they don’t have the say required to make a movie like iron man they way they would want. Marvel is building towards a huge event movie in The Avengers and if they can pull it off it will be beyond huge. Maybe someday they can reboot other films their way, but for now, they have plenty on their plate.
He’s not a scumbag. I most definitely agree that Iron Man is a far…far better film then the Dark Knight, especially story wise. No one has intelligently argued why the Dark Knight is such a great film and I’d really like an explanation because I’d like to see it that way. Yes, Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker was great, but the film is called the Dark Knight and feel that his character arc was completely flat. I mean the Joker’s idea of chaos vs justice should have been the whole film but then the story throws in Harvey Dent (wasted) and a whole big brother storyline both of which could have been their own films. Back to the point, Dark Knight left me unsatisfied and wanting more while Iron Man left me completely satisfied and still wanting more.
Far superior to The Dark Knight, my shiny metal ass.
Ok Joshua Rich, you LOST IT now. Great way to start a debate though, but NO! Maybe you should think about writing for another magazine, perhaps for Martha Stewart because you know nothing about entertainment.
i completely agree, Iron Man is the best movie of 2008 and way better than batman, even though batman is my favorite superhero, iron man was such a wonderful and perfect movie!! i love you RDJ!!
Put Mickey Rourke in the new Iron Man and then I’ll be sure to pay to see in the theater.
And you may not have enjoyed The Dark Knight that much, I can get that (overrated except for Heath Ledger, hence the Oscars going the way they did). But Iron Man, though funny, even more laughably entertaining due to its light mood, was ultimately a much weaker film nonetheless.
Joshua knows that he is pretty much in the minority of those liking Iron Man more (as evidenced by his sorry rest of the world). It’s just his personal opinion, we all have our own tastes, and I’m sure he’s not trying to incite some sort of debate. And even if he is, do not take the bait!
I’m with you about iron man/dark knight.
DK was actually a fairly average movie.
all I have to say is ha ha ha… that was a joke right? Although i do agree Iron Man was good, doesnt come close to the Dark Knight.
I just saw Robocop again on h u l u and it reminded me of Iron Man, except that Iron man could fly and Robocop couldn’t.
Now, if Marvel is making all this great money, how come they can’t pay Mickey Rourke more than $250,000 for Iron Man 2? The actors make the movie, they should share in the gains.
Dark Knight was alright, but Robert Downey Jr. nailed Tony Stark, and by far Iron Man was a better ‘comic book’ flick.
How refreshing to read that someone else thought Iron Man was a better movie than Dark Knight.
I am actually not worried about Marvel surviving. One of the reasons they are doing the movies themselves is to have the creative control and make sure they are done right. Look at Punisher (what crap that was), Xmen while good, could of been better with out alot of the rewriting of Marvel history they did, and the Fantastic Four was not very good at all. Marvel will have complete control and I feel they will stick closer to the source material than the other studios who try to squeeze all the cliches into movies( Superman Returns I am look at you with the addition of the baby).